Joking decides great things,
Stronger and better oft than earnest can.

Joking decides great things,
Stronger and better oft than earnest can.

If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to
earnest.
[Lat., Si quid read more

If anything is spoken in jest, it is not fair to turn it to
earnest.
[Lat., Si quid dictum est per jocum,
Non aequum est id te serio praevortier.]

(Andrew:) I am not such an ass but I can keep my hand dry. But
what's your jest?
read more

(Andrew:) I am not such an ass but I can keep my hand dry. But
what's your jest?
(Maria:) A dry jest, sir.
(Andrew:) Are you full of them?
(Maria:) Ay, sir, I have them at my fingers' ends. Marry, now I
let go your hand, I am barren.

People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on
the railroad tracks.

People that make puns are like wanton boys that put coppers on
the railroad tracks.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

Jesters do oft prove prophets.

Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.
[Fr., La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit.]

Jesting, often, only proves a want of intellect.
[Fr., La moquerie est souvent une indigence d'esprit.]

Less at thine own things laugh; lest in the jest
Thy person share, and the conceit advance,
read more

Less at thine own things laugh; lest in the jest
Thy person share, and the conceit advance,
Make not thy sport abuses: for the fly
That feeds on dung is colored thereby.

That's a good joke but we do it much better in England.

That's a good joke but we do it much better in England.

A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp
sting behind it.
[Lat., Aspere read more

A bitter jest, when it comes too near the truth, leaves a sharp
sting behind it.
[Lat., Aspere facetiae, ubi nimis ex vero traxere,
Acram sui memoriam relinquunt.]